Historical painting context for Early Netherlandish period in the Low Countries

In my ongoing program to describe the art of the Low Countries, I have provided the Burgundian and early Habsburg historical contexts for early Netherlandish paintings. I now provide some context on the art that preceded it.

As shown in the figure below, the Gothic period immediately preceded the Italian and Northern Renaissances, and itself was preceded by the Romanesque period.

Gothic art told a narrative story through pictures and differed from Romanesque art in the way that figures became more animated in pose and facial expression and were arranged more freely in the background space. In addition, with the patronage moving from kings and emperors to knights and noblemen, the purpose of the art moved from acts of piety to private use and these new patrons were demanding " a different, more realistic style of painting to record its transitory, earthly riches for posterity."

The primary painting surfaces in the Gothic period are shown in the table below.

Table 1: Primary painting surfaces in the Gothic era.

Medium	Observations
Panel Painting	Began in Italy in the 13th century and then spread through Europe By 15th century had become the dominant medium
Stained Glass	Art of choice until the 15th century
Frescoes	Main pictorial narrative image Used on church walls in Southern Europe Could not be used in Northern Europe because of drying issues
Illustrated Manuscripts	Religious works created in cloisters by monks Secular works created in workshops and guilds Miniature representation of the world in which the artist lived Landscapes first appeared in this medium Killed by the invention of the printing press

Today illustrated manuscripts represent the most complete record of Gothic paintings. Some examples of gothic artworks are shown below.

French late Gothic frescoes
(By MOSSOT - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10686187)

Illustrated manuscript
(Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux by Jean Pucelle, Paris, 1320s)

I will transition to the discussion of the Northern Renaissance and Early Netherlandish painting in my next post.

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